Bridgepoint, the parent company of Dorna (who control the rights to MotoGP) have just purchased Infront Sports and Media, which owns the commercial rights to World Superbikes, for a whopping 550 million euros.
The Qatar Investment Authority was another strong bidder for Infront and they’ll be miffed they didn’t get the deal – as they’ve shown, they’re not afraid to put money and resource into motorsport.
But there’s a lot more to Infront that motorcycle racing – they handle the FIFA World Cup and rights to well over 100 other sporting events. Bridgepoint’s plan is to develop MotoGP and World Superbikes but in exactly which direction remains to be seen.